The Reason Why You You NEED To Buy a Jeep YJ

Exploring the Timeless Appeal and Endless Adventures of the Jeep YJ

Why it might be a great idea for you to pick up a jeep wrangler yj that's right an 87 to 95 YJ wrangler? And why it might be a good idea to invest in one of these and get one in your very own garage. In this blog we're going to talk about some YJ history. Why this jeep is kind of revered as a controversial jeep and why some people really just despise it? What to look for if you want to pick one up? and why it's going to be a great investment for you?

History and Heritage

Jeep wrangler YJ was produced from 1987 to 1995 and is known as the YJ. This is the first generation wrangler and it takes its heritage from the original CJ. The CJ was known as  the civilian jeep and was what was produced after world war ii and after the willy’s and original jeeps  were done being produced. 

So the CJ ran up from the mid 40s all the way through the mid 80s and then you had the introduction of the jeep wrangler which is the first edition wrangler in 1987. These things have seen a variety of different engine options. But with these jeeps they are so controversial based on one thing - the square headlights.

True jeep enthusiasts absolutely hated these when they came out and the reason for this wasn't because it was the 80s and it was the cool thing, it was hip to be square. It was because the engineers at AMC really wanted to give the jeep wrangler a new look from that CJ. After a 60 minutes TV production, the CJ really got a ton of bad press and it took jeep a bunch of years to really recover from that. In order to go away from the instability that the CJ5 had on the highway, they decided to create the YJ. It had square headlights and the reason for the square headlight, it doesn't fall over, it doesn't roll over the way around headlight would and honestly it was just a marketing ploy for Jeep. And it seemed to work over 700,000 of these were sold and they are a great vehicle to drive. 

Stable Investment Value

Now with these jeep wrangler YJ's if you can find one that's in decent shape, they are starting to become almost 37 years old so these really are becoming a  collector's item, and they are the first generation wrangler. now we can look at a bunch of other vehicles that have gone through that passage like the Ford Bronco and the Toyota FJ Cruiser, that have seen the first generations extremely spike in price online.

If you are looking for one of these, the biggest thing you want to make sure is that you can get one as close to stock as possible. That might seem like it's not as big of a bargain or as good of a deal, but buying one that's stock that no one else has messed with gives you the chance to either keep it as a collector's item as it would have rolled off the showroom floor, or resell it as a brand new stock vehicle that the new owner can do whatever they want to it. 

Overall, it's probably a good value to buy these because the prices in the past 10 years or so go exponentially up. the one thing that they haven't done is decrease. 

In 2011 or 2012 you can only paid 5,000 dollars for a wrangler YJ, now you gotta figure that's  almost ten years ago and the prices for these have only gone up for a used one. You can get a nice clean yj for a decent price and especially if it's stock, you can sell it for a lot more.

There's going to be a couple things that you're going to want to look for when you're checking out a yj wrangler.

The biggest thing is that finding a stock yj that hasn't been all ripped up and hasn't been wrecked is getting harder and harder to find. 

These are getting more and more rare to find them in good condition. A lot of people had these yj's ran them out in the woods really beat the heck out of them, and then they just rotted away. 

That means as more and more years go by, you're gonna have a much harder time finding one in good condition.  It's almost the luck of the draw on craigslist and other ads to find one clean and stock. Definitely set up your notifications that way you can find them.

Searching and Buying Tips

When you do decide to go look at one, there are a few things that you should look for.

The first thing to look for especially if you're going to resell it or you're going to modify it is to keep it as stock as possible.  It's almost cooler to drive around a bone stock vehicle than to have it all lifted and modified up, that will increase the value. 

Second thing to look for is to see how good a condition the paint's in, as well as the typical rust points for the YJs. You're going to have them on the fender flare, behind the rocker and also the frames on these can rust out. So remember to bring a small ball hammer and just tapping along the frame when you go to check one out. Overall, you'll want to check out the axles, interior, just  basic overviews of this, but most of those things can be fixed easily. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, owning a Jeep Wrangler YJ not only offers the opportunity for exciting adventures and modern build, but also holds historical and collector value. With their prices steadily increasing, now may be the perfect time to add one of these iconic vehicles to your very own garage.